“In the past two days, you did not answer the questions I raised of you, nor did you respond to media enquiries – I cannot tolerate this,” the chief executive said Sunday in an open letter to Kenneth Leung.

The letter was a fourth public statement within five days from the chief executive targeting Leung. He demanded the accountancy sector lawmaker be removed from a legislative committee in charge of probing a controversial HK$50 million payment he received from Australian firm UGL.

Kenneth Leung. File Photo: Kenneth Leung, via Facebook.

Tax burden

The chief executive argued that Leung was attempting to “put pressure” on the Inland Revenue Department by asking its head to investigate the UGL payout controversy. He attached in his open letter a photo dated October 20, 2014 from Leung’s Facebook to prove his point.

Leung’s latest response to the chief executive came last Thursday, when he said he would not quit the investigatory committee. He said his past statements questioning the outgoing leader’s tax burden were made based on his professional judgement as a tax consultant.

In response, the chief executive said on Sunday: “As a professional accountant, you have never pointed out which payment in my agreement [with UGL] should be subject to taxation. Besides, what tax? Salaries tax? Profits tax? Value-added tax? Estate duty?”

“This is an example of the deteriorating quality of Hong Kong politics,” he added.

Revenue Tower. Photo: HKFP/Ellie Ng.

Conflict of interest

The chief executive also alleged that Leung had a direct conflict of interest in discussing the scope of the investigation, because the pair are involved in a defamation lawsuit.

He sued Kenneth Leung in March – a first for Hong Kong – alleging that the lawmaker made defamatory remarks in claiming he could be under investigation by Hong Kong or foreign tax authorities.

The chief executive has repeatedly denied the accusation, saying that he has never been approached by any tax authorities.

He accused Leung of being “biased and prejudiced” and therefore unfit to serve on the probe body: “Do you think society will consider your words and action on the committee to be neutral and fair?”

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